Airplanes come apart in midair for a variety of reasons. An errant pilot loses control or flies a model past its design limit, or unrepaired cracks and corrosion cause structure to fail. Fortunately, rigorous pilot training and aircraft maintenance standards make such events few and far between. Even rarer is the case when a design flaw brings down a relatively new airplane.

To a car driver deprived of his view of the road ahead, an SUV hogging the left lane is hardly a welcome sight. The longer it sits there, the more deeply the car driver ponders its often wasteful bulk, its appetite for gasoline and how brilliant it would be to confine these bloated conveyances to their own clogged stream over there on the far right. Who could possibly love an SUV?

[Editor's note: On September 19, 2008, DayJet Services, LLC, discontinued its jet services and canceled all future flights, the result, the company said, of its "inability to arrange critical financing in the midst of the current global financial crisis." DayJet also said it was unable to honor customer reservations or issue refunds.]

Orlando is becoming a major hub and resource center for corporate aviation, and for good reason: its metropolitan area boasts an unusually high number of corporate aircraft maintenance and crew training facilities. It also has perhaps the densest concentration of world-class fixed-base operators (FBOs) in the U.S.

Macquarie Global Opportunities Partners, an unlisted fund managed by a subsidiary of the Macquarie Group of Australia, announced after Labor Day that it had completed the acquisition of several business units of Sentient Flight Group, Inc. from Berwyn, Pa.-based JetDirect Aviation Holdings, LLC (formerly Sentient Jet Holdings, LLC). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

General Dynamics, owner of Gulfstream Aerospace, has agreed to pay about $2.25 billion to buy Zurich-based Jet Aviation from the Permira Funds private equity group. Permira bought the company in 2005 for an undisclosed sum that was said to be about $700 million. Subject to antitrust legal approval, General Dynamics' acquisition of Jet Aviation should be complete by year-end.

What you'll pay for air charter varies not only by aircraft type and model but by region. Here are the average per-hour rates for popular aircraft nationally and in the Northwest U.S., now and a year ago. Look for price data for other parts of the country in future issues.

When we launched Business Jet Traveler magazine in October 2003, the stock market and the U.S. economy were struggling to recover from their spectacular fall following the dot-com meltdown and 9/11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was at about 9,500, a level it had first passed through in early 1999 on its way up.

Grob Aerospace filed for insolvency in Germany after its main source of capital suddenly withdrew financial support for the SPn light business jet program. CEO Niall Olver said the loan provider pulled out because of further delays in the certification program and resulting increases in the amount of money required to get the aircraft into service.

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Quote/Unquote

“"I've got a list of corporations that have gotten out of their airplanes [because of criticism from politicians]. It is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. When you look at the time and cost savings; it does not make sense not to fly [privately]. You can't let public perception interfere with your business decision to fly. It either is a good business decision or it isn't."”